Valditara vows to scrap almost 7,000 school staff cuts in Italy's budget law

A pledge to remove the cut

On 4 November, during question time at the Chamber of Deputies, Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara answered a question from Irene Manzi of the Democratic Party (PD) about cuts to school staff. The budget law provides a structural reduction of almost 7,000 posts among teaching and ATA staff (administrative, technical and auxiliary personnel), starting with the 2027/2028 school year. Unions and opposition parties had protested the measure, and some allies in the governing coalition had voiced unease. Valditara himself distanced himself from the reduction, which appeared in the budget's technical tables. The aim is to remove it through specific amendments while the budget law is debated.

“We intend to work so that during the parliamentary passage of the budget law the measure of the cut can be eliminated.”

Blaming the Draghi government

Valditara said cuts to teaching posts were made to a significant extent by the Draghi government, when Bianchi of the Democratic Party was education minister, and that many current opposition lawmakers voted for them. He put the total at 10,157 fewer posts, or over 10,000 cuts. In contrast, he said his government had raised structural school resources by 13.1% over the first four budget laws of this legislature compared with 2022, and that resources rose 30% more than in the entire previous legislature. He added that, even with extraordinary Covid spending, the increase in the previous legislature had stopped at 9.58%. On school buildings, he said local authorities received 6 billion for school construction between 2011 and 2022, from the Monti government to the Draghi government, while the current government had mobilised over 14 billion in investment.

Hiring and class sizes

Valditara said the government has hired about 206,000 staff members and that about 40,000 more teacher appointments are already estimated for the next school year. He said this would leave more than 20,000 additional teachers hired in this legislature compared with the previous one. He also said the government had saved thousands of eligible candidates from earlier competitions.

“We have also saved thousands of eligible candidates from past competitions, abandoned by the previous government.”

On health, Valditara reported that more than 47,000 health services had been delivered to school staff in a very few days, free of charge under a health insurance scheme. He also gave class size figures: Italian classes averaged 18 pupils in primary and 20 in lower secondary in 2024, against OECD averages of 21 and 23.

Italy, primary18

OECD average, primary21

Italy, lower secondary20

OECD average, lower secondary23

Italy, primary

18 pupils

OECD average, primary

21 pupils

Italy, lower secondary

20 pupils

OECD average, lower secondary

23 pupils

Data from the article text

Dropout and learning results

Citing Invalsi, Valditara said early school leaving reached 7.3% in 2026, above the 9% target set for 2030, and that 520,000 students who had stopped attending school had returned. He said the share of students lacking adequate skills in Italian, maths and English at the end of 13 years of schooling fell to 6.3%. Valditara also said that OECD Pisa results, published in September, showed Italy overtaking Finland in reading for the first time. Citing Eurostat, he said Italy spends more per pupil than the European average.

2026 (per Invalsi)7.3%

2030 target9%

2026 (per Invalsi)

7.3 %

2030 target

9 %

Data from the article text